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SNAPGardens fieldwork evaluation

My project at Snap gardens was that I reach out to the community to inform them about growing gardens utilizing the benefits that they have from SNAP. Our goal also included to tell people who did not have food stamps so that they can spread the word. Relatively, I sense that the project well. It was definitely conducted the way it was planned. Our goal during this internship is to reach out to any community whether or not they have food stamps regardless of their socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity and education level. The important task is to make sure that we get the message out there. We want to make sure that people all around the country are cognizant that they can use their EBT benefits in a totally holistic way. In fact, they can purchase edible plants and seeds to grow their own garden. By doing so, they can eat in a more healthy way since they are planting their own vegetables, they can also stay physically active by gardening. They are also able to have a sense of community belonging for they can plant with their friends or teach people in their neighborhoods how to plant which, in the end, is good for their mental health. During our outreach luckily, we have posters that translate our message in different language such as Spanish, Haitian Creole and so forth. So if someone asks us, if they can read they can also comprehend the message that we are trying to convey.

The project is not ended yet thus I cannot assess the end result. But I have witnessed that more people purchase food producing plants at farmers markets. Also when we emailed some agencies, they have requested some posters about growing gardens using EBT benefits. The request of these posters is always good news for it is one of the most effective ways to spread the word in other states without having someone from the organization physically present to talk about it. Not having plant vendors was a big issue for us that day since we were unsure how to assess that message would stay with the community. On that day we really had to be persistent with the population we were dealing with. We also had to make sure that they’d left their emails or any contact information. Though not clear to me yet,I sense that utilizing my research skills to make a case study on the organization into finding out whether or not what they are doing is being properly or rather effectively done can be a contribution to the organization and beneficial to myself. Basically finding, comprehend public health research specific to population interested in gardening or programs that are food stamps related can definitely help to determine the significance of this project